Latin epsilon

Ɛ
Ɛ ɛ
Upper and lower case Latin Epsilon
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic and Logographic
Sound values
In UnicodeU+0190, U+025B
History
Development
A28
Other
Writing directionLeft-to-Right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Fante translation of the Book of Mormon; note the use of the Latin epsilon in the word N'AHYƐMU.

Latin epsilon or open E (majuscule: Ɛ, minuscule: ɛ) is a letter of the extended Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase of the Greek letter epsilon (ε). It was introduced in the 16th century by Gian Giorgio Trissino[1] to represent the pronunciation of the "open e" (the letter e pronounced as the open-mid front unrounded vowel) in the Italian language; this use of the letter has since become the standard in IPA notation[1] (see § Use in phonetic alphabets, below). Since the 20th century, the letter also occurs in the orthographies of many Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages, such as Ewe, Akan, Lingala, Dinka and Maasai, for the vowel [ɛ] or [e̙], and is included in the African reference alphabet.

In the Berber Latin alphabet used in Algerian Berber school books,[2] and before that proposed by the French institute INALCO, it represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative [ʕ]. Some authors use ƹayin ⟨ƹ⟩ instead;[citation needed] both letters are similar in shape with the Arabic ʿayn ⟨ع⟩.

  1. ^ a b Concise History of the Language Sciences. 2014. p. 154.
  2. ^ "Tamazight-Dzayer". Archived from the original on 2020-11-21.